


Cats and Dogs

by ariesspicy



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2017-10-24
Packaged: 2019-01-22 11:04:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12480132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ariesspicy/pseuds/ariesspicy
Summary: Jongin is shy and takes care of the stray dogs around campus. It turns out there's someone taking care of the stray cats- and in a crisis, Jongin needs his help.





	Cats and Dogs

**Author's Note:**

> Very fluffy. Thank you dear prompter for this prompt!

Cats and Dogs

The cicadas were roaring today. It was sweltering. The monsoon season had passed. But it had neglected to take its humidity with it when it left. There was scarcely any breeze today. Jongin was in the school garden.

Crouching among the blue and white hydrangea bushes, he was petting a big white dog. The dog was panting and smiling up at Jongin.

Estelle was a lovely siberian husky-jindo dog mix. She was around 1-2 years old and had a very sweet temperament. Jongin had looked after her since she was a young, awkward puppy when he had entered high school. She was white, fluffy, and affectionate.

Club activities were going on. There were shouts from a soccer match from the other side of school. Jongin wasn’t in any clubs. He would be if there were a dog or animal-focused club. At this time of the day, he just liked to hang out with his canine companions. Jongin heard someone approaching. It was lanky Chanyeol and his freshly dyed hair.

“Hey, Jongin”. Jongin looked up at him. “What’s up? Man I can not keep up with it the reading we got in English class, I mean Baekhyun came over and… um, helped me out and - oh hey puppies”. Chanyeol crouched down and patted Watson and Tango. Watson was milk chocolate brown and was a small poodle mix. Tango had white and gray fur and was some sort of terrier mix. They were panting because of the hot weather, but happy to see Chanyeol, circling around him and wagging their tails. Tango barked in excitement.

“I haven’t finished last week’s reading.” said Jongin. Chanyeol’s hair was blazing red.

“Yeah I didn’t either.” he said. He sat down and scratched Watson’s ears.

Estelle left Jongin to sniff Chanyeol eagerly.

“Do anything fun this weekend?” Chanyeol asked.

“Just hung out.”

Jongin rummaged in his pocket for dog treats.

“Here.” He held out a small piece of a chewy dog treat.

Chanyeol took it and held out his hand for Estelle. She delicately took it and chewed it thoroughly before swallowing.

Estelle did seem to be getting a little fat these days, Jongin noticed. Maybe she’s been mooching off another caregiver?

She returned to him and pushed her head under his hand in attempt to make him pet her. Her fur was really soft. Jongin had given her a bath and brushed her yesterday.

Watson yawned in Chanyeol’s lap. Tango trotted over to the water bowl.

Jongin hoped the heat would let up soon.

—  
The next morning, Jongin was greeted by the three dogs as he entered the school grounds as they did every morning. He tried to not make a big spectacle of it because he didn’t want to run the risk of any teachers or faculty finding out in case they might not want the stray dogs around. He entered through a corner of the school garden, moving aside a plank in the wooden fence, and walking on the trail hidden by trees. Estelle nuzzled his hand, Tango danced around and barked, and Watson trailed behind.

After briefly filling their big water bowl, allocating dog food for each of them, and promising to return during lunch, he headed out in the open to the school entrance. He heard some students talking in hushed voices but avoided making eye contact, as he did every morning. His ears burned pink a little bit as they also did every morning when this happened.

He walked up the steps to the school, keeping his gaze downwards.

He wasn’t really sure if anyone was actually talking about him or not, but just wanted to hurry in and get to class.

—  
Jongin muttered to himself, quietly cursing under his breath. He had forgotten one of the books he was supposed to be writing an essay on. It was back on his desk at school. He hoped he’d be able to sneak in like he did last time.

The night was heavy and humid. It was around 10pm but he just had to get to the book. The essay was due tomorrow. He was hurrying as quickly and quietly as he could up to the school garden and his personal secret entrance.

Last time, a window was open and he was able to sneak into school. He really hoped that that was the case this time too. Many fireflies danced around the fence and school grounds. He had made it to the indented part of the fence where he always went in.

Gently pushing the plank aside, Jongin crept through. He saw Estelle snoozing in her normal place in a makeshift dog bed. He walked carefully and hoped he wouldn’t wake her up. Which happened of course. There’s no getting past her.

Estelle whined at him playfully and thumped her tail on the ground.

“Shhh!”, Jongin insisted, patting her.

Tango and Watson must be out making their nighttime rounds.

He heard some rustling and froze. It sounded like… dry dog food falling into a pan?

“I’ve got enough for all of you, ok?”. Jongin was crouching down, trying to figure out where the noises and voice were coming from.

It seemed to be opposite where Jongin was, near the other side of the school gate and in the vegetable garden. Shadows of trees and branches were long under the street lights. Jongin moved behind the last big tree in the garden to get a better look. There was definitely someone over there.

There was more sounds of shuffling around and dry dog food being poured out.

Jongin decided to risk it and move into the open to get a better look. He tried to make Estelle settle back down and ventured out to look. There were no lights on the school grounds, just street lights outside, so most of the lawn was left dark.

The guy seemed pretty small and was handing out food to… cats? So it was cat food… Since when did they have that many stray cats on the school grounds? There were a lot of them. Jongin couldn’t keep track of them all. Maybe 8 or 9?

The small guy pulled some kind of container out of his pocket and popped it open.

There was a small crunch as Jongin stepped on the gravel walkway, not noticing he had wandered so close to it. The other guy definitely heard it and looked around. Jongin made a break for it and sprinted back to the garden and fled out through the fence.

Catching his breath a block from his home, he tried to calm down. Why was he even scared in the first place? He didn’t know. He felt a bit ashamed and disappointed. He’d givien up his plan to get his book. Jongin shook his head in frustration and headed towards home.

—  
Jongin wasn’t sure how to ask. But he wanted to ask Chanyeol. Chanyeol knows everybody.

It was lunchtime and Jongin sat at with his usual group of friends in the cafeteria. Sehun and Chanyeol were joking around loudly as usual, and Jongin wasn’t sure how to get a word in.

Finally, Sehun left to go find a dessert and it was only Chanyeol and Jongin left at the table.

“I… saw some stray cats yesterday around school.”

“Yeah? I heard there’s some guy that feeds them!”

Jongin really shouldn’t be surprised, Chanyeol knows everyone.

“I think his name is… Kyungsoo? The class prez was talking to him, trying to get him to stop feeding the cats cause more and more keep coming. Haha! He doesn’t mind the dogs though.”

Sehun came back with some cookies.

“Yeah, that’s him over there.” Chanyeol gestured over towards the edge of the cafeteria. Jongin tried to spot him.

“Who?” asked Sehun.

Then Jongin saw him. The short guy with dark brown hair. He had turned his head to talk to a friend and Jongin recognized him instantly.

“Kyungsoo. Suho really got after him yesterday, right?” Chanyeol grinned.

Sehun did a sharp intake of breath. “You know…” he paused.

“Jongin and Kyungsoo would be… a match.” Jongin’s heart thumped. He tried to act nonchalant and sniffed, looking dubiously at Sehun.

It took a second. Then Chanyeol’s eyes widened “Yeah, you’re right!” He threw an arm around Jongin and Jongin felt like he was going to burn up.

“Yeah, man! Dog mom and cat mom! You guys need to get together.” Jongin bit his lip nervously.

“You should talk to him.”

“Just talk about your dogs!”

“Um.” was all Jongin could say. Then the bell rang.

He watched as Kyungsoo tucked away some leftover fish into a plastic container.

—  
Jongin was getting worried.

The past few days Estelle hadn’t been eating much and seemed to be anxious, especially today.

Class had ended and he wanted to stay around until she seemed better. All day he had gone to check on her between classes. She was pacing around and wouldn’t settle down. He sat down with her and stroked her fur. She grunted a little, and finally settled next to him. He felt tired between worrying about her and not getting enough sleep the day before.

—  
Jongin ended up napping in the garden, leaning against the old shed. He was woken by Estelle whining again.

She was pacing and panting. It was dark out, how long had he been there? The crickets hummed and lights from the street were filtered through the fence.

He needed to get help. He knew of a veterinarian clinic close by. He looked at his phone and looked at his contact list. His finger hovered over Chanyeol.

“Jongin?” Jongin looked up with a start. It was Kyungsoo. “Is the dog ok?” How did he know his name?

“She’s been acting sick all day, I think we need to go to a vet… I don’t know what to do”.

Kyungsoo knelt down and petted Estelle, feeling around her stomach and abdomen.

There was a long pause. Jongin’s heart thumped in his chest.

“Jongin, she’s pregnant.” Kyungsoo said, a smile tugging at his lips. It was missed by Jongin.

“What?” definitely something Jongin had not considered. “What do we do?”

“Um… let’s go to the vet, come on.”

—  
It was about 3 weeks later; Kyungsoo was walking over to Jongin’s usual hangout in the garden. Cats were meowing and trailing behind him.

The weather had turned drier and big red and yellow roses were blooming in the garden.

Estelle, Watson, and Tango came over to greet Kyungsoo.

“Hey, Watson” he said, petting Watson who had come up and put a paw on top of his sneaker. “Jongin? Where are you?”

Tango tentatively sniffed a large grey cat that had boldly approached him.

“Over here!” Jongin called. He was inside the old shed. Kyungsoo looked in.

Jongin was under a pile of white fluffy puppies.

Kyungsoo smiled. Estelle joined in and laid on top of Jongin.

It had been quite a time in the veterinarian waiting room a few weeks ago, Jongin worried sick about Estelle and Kyungsoo trying to explain to him when he’d helped a cat that was pregnant who turned out fine with her 9 kittens. Kyungsoo had held his hand.

“Oof! Chanyeol thinks we’ve got some takers that want to adopt”.

“That’s good, the music professor’s interested too.”

As Estelle got up to leave, the puppies climbed off of Jongin and scrambled to follow her, yipping and whining.

“Can I just… keep all of them?”

“How would you take care of all of them?” Kyungsoo laughed, helping Jongin up.

Jongin scooped up a puppy that had been left behind from the others, sleeping soundly.

Tango rushed in, barking. The big grey cat was chasing him.

Kyungsoo squeezed Jongin’s hand.

“Come on, dog mom. We have to find homes for your kids.”

Jongin pulled a face. “Stop calling me that” he whined. “Wouldn’t it be… dog dad?”.

“No”. Kyungsoo laughed and pulled him out of the shed and into the garden.


End file.
